The Crucible: Misuse of power.

      Danforth then seems to be wary of Abigail in the next reply to her, the book describes what he says as ‘apprehensively’.  Danforth has began to be aware of what Abigail is doing and decided to not get in her way or upset her, as he didn’t want her to accuse him of being in contact with the Devil.  If she did this it would be him on trial as well as all the others.

      Another point about Abigail is that she is a liar and she is very good at it.  This is how she is so respected by some people and feared by others.

      In my opinion the reason Abigail is so manipulative and weird, and also seems to have no feeling or a conscience, is because her parents were murdered by Indians in front of her.  She describes this to the girls in a hard-hearted way, which shows that her emotions have all been drained apart from her love/lust for proctor and her jealously of Elizabeth.

      Reverend Parris misuses his power in The Crucible because he does not think the townspeople of Salem respect his position as ‘a man of God’.  The Churches power at that time was very strong and so Reverend Parris has no problem in using his power the wrong way.  The way in which he misuses his power is mostly from the pulpit of the church in his sermons.  He believes that the church is the authority of all people in the town.  He also believes himself an authoritative figure.  He believes that anyone who does not commit his or her lives to the church should be questioned.  He also demands that the people of Salem are obedient to the church and himself.  He says that if they are not obedient, then they will burn in hell.  Reverend Parris preaching things like this in his sermon strikes fear into the townspeople, as they begin to think Hell is upon them and this causes chaos to break out, as they begin to yell and scream at one another.

      Reverend Parris hates to be wrong, in the courtroom even when he realised that he is wrong to accuse all the people involved, he still sticks to his beliefs however wrong they may be.  Parris causes innocent peoples deaths all because of his beliefs, stubbornness, selfishness and his misuse of power.

      I have reached the conclusion that the characters in The Crucible do misuse their power; the two characters I chose demonstrate this theory very well.  Not all the characters in the play do, but there are many characters that do. This selfish act of misusing power in The Crucible is very influential to how the plot develops.  Without Abigail Williams acting like a selfish, irresponsible strumpet, or Reverend Parris being selfish and power-hungry The Crucible would have lost its whole page-turning ominous, experience.